Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 September 30

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[edit] September 30

[edit] Get an E-mail address?

How do you get an E-mail address? Jet (talk) 01:19, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Usually you need to sign up with an institution or site that gives out e-mail addresses. There are many sites that give out "free" accounts (that is, you pay no money for it, though you are subjected to advertising in one form or another), like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, etc. Otherwise most people get them through their employers, universities, etc. Or, you can buy server space on a server host that runs an e-mail server, and get your own custom addresses to your custom URL, though that costs money (though usually not much, if it is a limited number of e-mail addresses). --24.147.86.187 02:43, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
I recommend Gmail for normal use and Hushmail for anything secure. Never use an american server that you don't control for anything you expect to be secure. --frotht 03:18, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
Yawn. Secure from what? The gov'ment? --24.147.86.187 10:30, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
You need to read more slashdot. --frotht 04:17, 1 October 2007 (UTC)
I'm just doing research because I already have a E-mail address from Gmail. Jet (talk) 04:36, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
Also, most people get an e-mail address thru their Internet Service Provider. StuRat 12:22, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

You get an email address from someone who owns the domain name and is willing to provide you the service. 00:25, 1 October 2007 (UTC) User:Kushal_one--KushalClick me! write to me 00:30, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Microchip for the playstation 2

My friend once told me that there is a microchip you can buy for the playstation 2 that allows you to play pirated games for the playstation 2. When I asked a guy at best buy , he said it can break your playstation 2 but when I asked a guy selling pirated games he said it would'nt break it.I want to know if it's safe for the game system.(can I also the article on it on wikipedia please) Thank you for your time (Wookiemaster 01:38, 30 September 2007 (UTC))

The article is modchip. Now just about anything can break a system (or computer, or whatever). Whether it is likely or probable to is the question. I wouldn't expect someone at BestBuy to necessarily know that—if they are talking with their employer's interests at heart, they will likely exaggerate; if they are talking in terms of those which they were asked to repair, they probably are dealing with a skewed sample (those which did not break, they would not see). Either way I wouldn't expect them to be totally accurate on such a thing, though I profess to know little about it myself. Now, of course, if you are installing any electronics yourself, and have no experience doing so, you can easily ruin them (this can even apply if you are installing RAM yourself, which is comparatively simple, if you don't, say, ground yourself from a static charge), so if you are not familiar with a soldering iron you should not try to install a microchip yourself. --24.147.86.187 02:56, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
No a modchip won't break your console, typical propaganda and fear, uncertainty, and doubt. It's perfectly safe if you know what you're doing. Which you don't. So don't. --frotht 03:12, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks you for your help , but just in case can i get someone with first hand experience tell me about it.Someone who's actuelly put it in (Wookiemaster 03:50, 30 September 2007 (UTC))

You won't be wanting to put it in yourself anyway. It requires using as soldering iron which is not something for the inexperienced to play around with. You'll want to pay someone to install it for you. --24.147.86.187 10:28, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
I use one of [| these] to play Japanese and European imports on my PS2. It's essentially a boot disk and a replacement for the DVD drive's flip-top so the PS2 can't detect that you've swapped disks. I've never tried it with a pirated game, but they're heavily marketed with that in mind, so I'm pretty sure it'll work. It's not as convenient as a mod-chip, and it still voids your warranty, but I didn't have to solder anything anything. 69.95.50.15 18:13, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] TeX not working for me :(

I'm trying to use the TeX rendering capabilities of Wikipedia to make equations for an assignment. However, this is not working very well, as you can see here. I'm trying to make aligned equations like those on the help page for TeX on MediaWikis but it's not going so well. Help, please? --M1ss1ontomars2k4 03:43, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Well that was dumb. I'm not entirely sure what was wrong, but as typed, the formula that I had didn't make sense and wasn't what I wanted. So I'm good now. --M1ss1ontomars2k4 03:48, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How i enable auto update in symantec antivirus corporate edition ???

How i enable auto update in symantec antivirus corporate edition ??? I tried many things (even looking at some parts of registry), my auto-update is blocked and i can`t enable them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.78.254.230 (talk) 04:05, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Open up Symantec AntiVirus, go to File -> Schedule Updates. What do you mean it "is blocked"? --Spoon! 06:47, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

I mean that i cant change the hour and day that the program will auto update, and can not update the program by going to file -> live update.201.78.254.230 20:38, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] image threshold

I want to take two grayscale images and output an image in which each pixel is black or white depending on which of the input images is brighter at that point. (My idea is to make a POV-Ray scene look like a woodcut.) Can GIMP do that in a scriptable way? —Tamfang 06:05, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

If Netpbm can't do that, it ought to be able to. —Steve Summit (talk) 16:51, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Great Template Reform

So what's behind the standardised template (colour-border on the left etc.) on WP? Where's the discussion for it? --antilivedT | C | G 09:33, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

They're all derived from Template:ambox. There's some discussion at Wikipedia talk:Article message boxes. — Matt Eason (Talk • Contribs) 10:06, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
Some?! The page is a month old and there are already 7 massive archive pages of discussion --frotht 18:52, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
Yeah, 'some' as in 'not all of it'. There's more at Wikipedia talk:Template standardisation/article and probably even more scattered around elsewhere. — Matt Eason (Talk • Contribs) 20:19, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] GRUB on primary partition

I've decided to try Ubuntu in a dualboot configuration with Windows XP. I have two hard-disks, and have installed it in this configuration:

  • Primary SATA hard disk = Windows XP
  • Secondary IDE = Ubuntu

Now the problem is that my MBR lies on the SATA disk (my primary HDD), but Ubuntu has loaded GRUB on my secondary disk. How do I save GRUB to my primary partition?

I have two more questions:

  • I still have the Mandriva LILO on my primary, (I installed Ubuntu over it). How do I remove it in favour of Ubuntu's GRUB?)
  • Is there a graphical GRUB loader I can use instead of the text-based one?
A graphical GRUB installer? Not that I've ever seen, or Google will turn up.
I'm assuming for my instructions that SATA is /dev/sda (hd0), and IDE is /dev/hda (hd1), respectively.
A simple "grub-install /dev/sda" should install GRUB into the MBR of your 'primary' drive.
I think the actual question you are asking through all of this is what your grub.conf should look like, the answer is something like this:
title Windows
    map (hd0)
    rootnoverify (hd0,0)
    chainloader +1
    makeactive

title Linux
    kernel (hd1,0)/kernelname root=/dev/rootpartition
    initrd (hd1,0)/initrd
You are being lazy. Google returned over 500,000 results for "grub dual boot," at least the first 10 pages of which are pertanant to your specific situation. Wilymage 02:11, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! =Nichalp «Talk»= 13:20, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] UTORRENTS

HI EVERYONE I WAS JUST WANDERING IF ANY ONE COULD HELP ME SPEED UP MY TORRENT FILES DOWNLOADS P.S. MY CURRENT SPEED IS 13KB\S AND MY DSL SPEED IS 128KB\S PLEASE HELP !!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.71.37.72 (talk) 16:39, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Have you added port forwarding rules in your router, and does your ISP throttle P2P? Splintercellguy 17:08, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Bingo. Also force encryption in the utorrent options and uncheck "allow incoming legacy connections" so that your ISP won't be able to tell you're using bittorrent. And always use peerguardian (and I'm not just talking about for bittorrent; use it always!) --frotht 18:25, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
There is a lot of information for these kinds of problems at this FAQ and at the uTorrent forums. —Akrabbimtalk 21:16, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Are you sure that your speed is actually 128 kilobytes/sec and not 128 kilobits/sec? The latter translates to 16 kilobytes/sec, so maybe you are already using most of your possible speed. 208.66.211.217 00:10, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How to send entire folder full of pictures over the internet

How would you tell someone of only intermediate computer skill to send a folder full of pictures? Normally I'd ftp them or zip them into one file and email the zip. But I think those options are a bit too complicated for the person in question.

What's the simpler way? --Alecmconroy 20:00, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Put the folder on removable media and send it through postal mail. You shouldn't even consider emailing a zipped folder full of pictures. Email is not designed for sending huge files. A better option would be a file trading part of another program, such as AIM, MSN, GoogleTalk... -- kainaw™ 21:41, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
Agreed. Send them a CD, it's the most universal format right now. StuRat 21:59, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How many states offer e-learnig programs:

How many states currently offer e-learning programs for grades K5-12? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.197.157.44 (talk) 21:26, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Print to file - .prn

I have a program installed on my laptop, that I need to be able to print from, but I don't have a printer available to hook up, so I need a way to print from a computer on campus. I've tried using the "print to file" option, but I can't get it to work. It creates a file with a .prn extension, which I can't seem to find a way to open it or send it to a printer on another printer. How can I get "print to file" to work? What do I need to open the .prn file? Thanks —Akrabbimtalk 21:55, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

I use (and love) CutePDF. You can get it at www.cutepdf.com. In use, you click on "print" as usual, but then choose "cutePDF" as your printer. It will then "print" the output to a PDF file. You can pick the destination where you want it saved. Then you can email (or otherwise deliver) the PDF file to another computer, where it can be printed as usual. Bunthorne 03:38, 1 October 2007 (UTC)
The .prn file is raw printer commands. You need to then transfer the file to the printer. On unix boxes, this is often as easy as catting the file through LPR. Many HP network printers have FTP-servers built in -- you can just upload your .prn file and it will print. --Mdwyer 05:01, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Changing default open in MS Word

In MS Word 2000 and 2003 for XP/Vista, when I click "File>Open" the default folder it opens up is My Documents. Is there anyway to change the default folder it opens up to a different folder? Thanks. Acceptable 21:57, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

For 2003 (should be the same for 2000), go to "Tools" --> "Options" --> "File Locations" and change the "Documents" entry. - Akamad 00:53, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] license informations included in file?

Hi, Are infos about the owner of the license included in a file created by a program of graphic creation such as adobe photoshop, indesign or illustrator? For example, can someone find out the name of the license owner, or the number of the license, by looking in a indesign "package" (that's made to send to the printing company)?

Thanks in advance! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.190.181.59 (talk) 22:14, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

I created a test Illustrator file and opened it in Wordpad. The following lines were near the beginning:
%!PS-Adobe-3.0 
%%Creator: Adobe Illustrator(R) 12.0
%%AI8_CreatorVersion: 12.0.1
%%For: (Matt Eason) ( )
%%Title: (Untitled-1)
%%CreationDate: 10/1/2007 12:23 AM
...so it appears Illustrator does store the license owner's name in the file. I had a quick look in some Photoshop and InDesign files and didn't find anything similar. These are all the CS2 versions. — Matt Eason (Talk • Contribs) 23:42, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
I get the distinct impression that you're asking, "Are scary men with guns going to show up at my door because I stole Photoshop?" We're not supposed to help you with legal questions. However, I will say that I seem to recall that Microsoft was once caught because the EXIF record on one of their images showed that it was created with a pirated image program. I can't find the article yet, though. --Mdwyer 04:59, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] TCP/UDP

WHERE I CAN FIND THIS TCP AND UDP —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.132.214.141 (talk) 22:28, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Transmission Control Protocol and User Datagram Protocol — Matt Eason (Talk • Contribs) 23:15, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] MS Word lists

I'm using Word 2004 for Mac, and I have a problem with lists. When I make a basic dashed list, it won't let me indent to make different levels. When I press TAB, the dash stays in the same level. How do I fix this? --Lazar Taxon 22:54, 30 September 2007 (UTC)